MinerU Output Files Documentation

Overview

After executing the mineru command, in addition to the main markdown file output, multiple auxiliary files are generated for debugging, quality inspection, and further processing. These files include:

The exact set of generated files depends on the backend and the input document type.

• Visual debugging files: Help users intuitively understand the document parsing process and results
• Structured data files: Contain detailed parsing data for secondary development
• In multimodal markdown output, image / chart blocks render the screenshot first; when content exists, a collapsed HTML <details> block is appended after the image, using the block sub_type as the summary label when available and falling back to image content or chart content

The following sections provide detailed descriptions of each file's purpose and format.

Visual Debugging Files

Layout Analysis File (layout.pdf)

File naming format: {original_filename}_layout.pdf

Functionality:

• Visualizes layout analysis results for each page
• Numbers in the top-right corner of each detection box indicate reading order
• Different background colors distinguish different types of content blocks

Use cases:

• Check if layout analysis is correct
• Verify if reading order is reasonable
• Debug layout-related issues

Text Spans File (span.pdf)

[!NOTE] Only applicable to pipeline backend

File naming format: {original_filename}_span.pdf

Functionality:

• Uses different colored line boxes to annotate page content based on span type
• Used for quality inspection and issue troubleshooting

Use cases:

• Quickly troubleshoot text loss issues
• Check inline formula recognition
• Verify text segmentation accuracy

Structured Data Files

[!IMPORTANT] The VLM backend output has significant changes in version 2.5 and is not backward-compatible with the pipeline backend. If you plan to build secondary development on structured outputs, please read this document carefully.

Pipeline Backend Output Results

Model Inference Results (model.json)

File naming format: {original_filename}_model.json

Sample Data

[
    {
        "cls_id": 12,
        "label": "header",
        "score": 0.93,
        "bbox": [
            1217,
            104,
            1516,
            134
        ],
        "index": 2
    },
    {
        "cls_id": 6,
        "label": "doc_title",
        "score": 0.9751,
        "bbox": [
            275,
            181,
            1512,
            292
        ],
        "index": 3
    },
    {
        "cls_id": 22,
        "label": "text",
        "score": 0.9217,
        "bbox": [
            275,
            330,
            524,
            370
        ],
        "index": 4
    }
]

Intermediate Processing Results (middle.json)

File naming format: {original_filename}_middle.json

Top-level Structure

Page Information Structure (pdf_info)

Block Structure Hierarchy

Level 1 blocks (table | image | chart)
└── Level 2 blocks
    └── Lines
        └── Spans

Level 1 Block Fields

Level 2 Block Fields

Level 2 Block Types

Line and Span Structure

Line fields:

• bbox: Rectangular box coordinates of the line
• spans: List of contained spans

Span fields:

• bbox: Rectangular box coordinates of the span
• type: Span type (image, table, chart, text, inline_equation, interline_equation)
• content | image_path: Text content or image path

Sample Data

{
    "pdf_info": [
        {
            "preproc_blocks": [
                {
                    "type": "text",
                    "bbox": [
                        52,
                        61.956024169921875,
                        294,
                        82.99800872802734
                    ],
                    "lines": [
                        {
                            "bbox": [
                                52,
                                61.956024169921875,
                                294,
                                72.0000228881836
                            ],
                            "spans": [
                                {
                                    "bbox": [
                                        54.0,
                                        61.956024169921875,
                                        296.2261657714844,
                                        72.0000228881836
                                    ],
                                    "content": "dependent on the service headway and the reliability of the departure ",
                                    "type": "text",
                                    "score": 1.0
                                }
                            ]
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "layout_bboxes": [
                {
                    "layout_bbox": [
                        52,
                        61,
                        294,
                        731
                    ],
                    "layout_label": "V",
                    "sub_layout": []
                }
            ],
            "page_idx": 0,
            "page_size": [
                612.0,
                792.0
            ],
            "_layout_tree": [],
            "images": [],
            "tables": [],
            "interline_equations": [],
            "discarded_blocks": [],
            "para_blocks": [
                {
                    "type": "text",
                    "bbox": [
                        52,
                        61.956024169921875,
                        294,
                        82.99800872802734
                    ],
                    "lines": [
                        {
                            "bbox": [
                                52,
                                61.956024169921875,
                                294,
                                72.0000228881836
                            ],
                            "spans": [
                                {
                                    "bbox": [
                                        54.0,
                                        61.956024169921875,
                                        296.2261657714844,
                                        72.0000228881836
                                    ],
                                    "content": "dependent on the service headway and the reliability of the departure ",
                                    "type": "text",
                                    "score": 1.0
                                }
                            ]
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "_backend": "pipeline",
    "_version_name": "0.6.1"
}

Content List (content_list.json)

File naming format: {original_filename}_content_list.json

Functionality

This is a simplified version of middle.json that stores all readable content blocks in reading order as a flat structure, removing complex layout information for easier subsequent processing.

Content Types

Text Level Identification

Text levels are distinguished through the text_level field:

• No text_level or text_level: 0: Body text
• text_level: 1: Level 1 heading
• text_level: 2: Level 2 heading
• And so on...

Common Fields

• All content blocks include a page_idx field indicating the page number (starting from 0).
• All content blocks include a bbox field representing the bounding box coordinates of the content block [x0, y0, x1, y1], mapped to a range of 0-1000.
• code entries use sub_type to distinguish code and algorithm, and may include fields such as code_body, code_caption, and code_footnote.
• list entries may use sub_type to distinguish ordinary lists from reference-style lists.
• image / chart entries may include an optional sub_type field to carry the visual subtype through downstream outputs.
• Seal content is represented as an image entry with sub_type: "seal".

Sample Data

[
        {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "The response of flow duration curves to afforestation ",
        "text_level": 1, 
        "bbox": [
            62,
            480,
            946,
            904
        ],
        "page_idx": 0
    },
    {
        "type": "image",
        "img_path": "images/a8ecda1c69b27e4f79fce1589175a9d721cbdc1cf78b4cc06a015f3746f6b9d8.jpg",
        "image_caption": [
            "Fig. 1. Annual flow duration curves of daily flows from Pine Creek, Australia, 1989–2000. "
        ],
        "image_footnote": [],
        "bbox": [
            62,
            480,
            946,
            904
        ],
        "page_idx": 1
    },
    {
        "type": "equation",
        "img_path": "images/181ea56ef185060d04bf4e274685f3e072e922e7b839f093d482c29bf89b71e8.jpg",
        "text": "$$\nQ _ { \\% } = f ( P ) + g ( T )\n$$",
        "text_format": "latex",
        "bbox": [
            62,
            480,
            946,
            904
        ],
        "page_idx": 2
    },
    {
        "type": "table",
        "img_path": "images/e3cb413394a475e555807ffdad913435940ec637873d673ee1b039e3bc3496d0.jpg",
        "table_caption": [
            "Table 2 Significance of the rainfall and time terms "
        ],
        "table_footnote": [
            "indicates that the rainfall term was significant at the $5 \\%$ level, $T$ indicates that the time term was significant at the $5 \\%$ level, \\* represents significance at the $10 \\%$ level, and na denotes too few data points for meaningful analysis. "
        ],
        "table_body": "<html><body><table><tr><td rowspan=\"2\">Site</td><td colspan=\"10\">Percentile</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>20</td><td>30</td><td>40</td><td>50</td><td>60</td><td>70</td><td>80</td><td>90</td><td>100</td></tr><tr><td>Traralgon Ck</td><td>P</td><td>P,*</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>P,</td><td>P,</td><td>P,</td><td>P,</td><td>P</td><td>P</td></tr><tr><td>Redhill</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>，*</td><td>**</td><td>P.T</td><td>P,*</td><td>P*</td><td>P*</td><td>*</td><td>，*</td></tr><tr><td>Pine Ck</td><td></td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>T</td><td>T</td><td>T</td><td>na</td><td>na</td></tr><tr><td>Stewarts Ck 5</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P.T</td><td>P.T</td><td>P,T</td><td>na</td><td>na</td><td>na</td></tr><tr><td>Glendhu 2</td><td>P</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,*</td><td>P,T</td><td>P.T</td><td>P,ns</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td></tr><tr><td>Cathedral Peak 2</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>*,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>T</td></tr><tr><td>Cathedral Peak 3</td><td>P.T</td><td>P.T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>T</td></tr><tr><td>Lambrechtsbos A</td><td>P,T</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>P,T</td><td>*,T</td><td>*,T</td><td>*,T</td><td>*,T</td><td>*,T</td><td>T</td></tr><tr><td>Lambrechtsbos B</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>T</td><td>T</td></tr><tr><td>Biesievlei</td><td>P,T</td><td>P.T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td><td>*,T</td><td>*,T</td><td>T</td><td>T</td><td>P,T</td><td>P,T</td></tr></table></body></html>",
        "bbox": [
            62,
            480,
            946,
            904
        ],  
        "page_idx": 5
    }
]

Common Content List V2 (content_list_v2.json)(development version, subject to change)

File naming format: {original_filename}_content_list_v2.json

Functionality

content_list_v2.json is the new structured output added in 3.0. All backends now emit it in addition to the legacy content_list.json:

• The top level is grouped by page for page-oriented consumption
• Each item uses a unified type + content structure for easier programmatic processing
• The exact supported type values depend on the backend and input type

Common Fields

image / chart items may also include an optional top-level sub_type field for visual subtype propagation.

Common Types

Inline fields such as title_content, paragraph_content, and captions are usually span lists. A hyperlink span contains content and url; when one link contains text fragments with different styles, it may also contain children. In that case, content is the concatenated child text, and the exact styles are represented by the child text spans.

Sample Data

[
  [
    {
      "type": "title",
      "content": {
        "title_content": [
          {
            "type": "text",
            "content": "1 Introduction"
          }
        ],
        "level": 1
      },
      "bbox": [83, 121, 917, 156]
    },
    {
      "type": "page_footnote",
      "content": {
        "page_footnote_content": [
          {
            "type": "text",
            "content": "* Corresponding author"
          }
        ]
      },
      "bbox": [71, 815, 915, 841]
    }
  ]
]

VLM Backend Output Results

Model Inference Results (model.json)

File naming format: {original_filename}_model.json

File format description

• Two-level nested list: outer list = pages; inner list = content blocks of that page
• Each block is a dict with at least: type, bbox, angle, content (some types add extra fields like score, block_tags, content_tags, format)
• Designed for direct, raw model inspection

Supported content types (type field values)

{
  "text": "Plain text",
  "title": "Title",
  "equation": "Display (interline) formula",
  "image": "Image",
  "image_caption": "Image caption",
  "image_footnote": "Image footnote",
  "table": "Table",
  "table_caption": "Table caption",
  "table_footnote": "Table footnote",
  "phonetic": "Phonetic annotation",
  "code": "Code block",
  "code_caption": "Code caption",
  "ref_text": "Reference / citation entry",
  "algorithm": "Algorithm block (treated as code subtype)",
  "list": "List container",
  "header": "Page header",
  "footer": "Page footer",
  "page_number": "Page number",
  "aside_text": "Side / margin note",
  "page_footnote": "Page footnote"
}

Coordinate system

• bbox = [x0, y0, x1, y1] (top-left, bottom-right)
• Origin at top-left of the page
• All coordinates are normalized percentages in [0,1]

Sample data

[
  [
    {
      "type": "header",
      "bbox": [0.077, 0.095, 0.18, 0.181],
      "angle": 0,
      "score": null,
      "block_tags": null,
      "content": "ELSEVIER",
      "format": null,
      "content_tags": null
    },
    {
      "type": "title",
      "bbox": [0.157, 0.228, 0.833, 0.253],
      "angle": 0,
      "score": null,
      "block_tags": null,
      "content": "The response of flow duration curves to afforestation",
      "format": null,
      "content_tags": null
    }
  ]
]

Intermediate Processing Results (middle.json)

File naming format: {original_filename}_middle.json

Structure is broadly similar to the pipeline backend, but with these differences:

• list becomes a second‑level block, a new field sub_type distinguishes list categories:
  • text: ordinary list
  • ref_text: reference / bibliography style list
• New code block type with sub_type(a code block always has at least a code_body, it may optionally have a code_caption):
  • code
  • algorithm
• discarded_blocks may contain additional types:
  • header
  • footer
  • page_number
  • aside_text
  • page_footnote
• All blocks include an angle field indicating rotation (one of 0, 90, 180, 270).

Examples

• Example: list block

  {
    "bbox": [174,155,818,333],
    "type": "list",
    "angle": 0,
    "index": 11,
    "blocks": [
      {
        "bbox": [174,157,311,175],
        "type": "text",
        "angle": 0,
        "lines": [
          {
            "bbox": [174,157,311,175],
              "spans": [
                {
                  "bbox": [174,157,311,175],
                  "type": "text",
                  "content": "H.1 Introduction"
                }
              ]
          }
        ],
        "index": 3
      },
      {
        "bbox": [175,182,464,229],
        "type": "text",
        "angle": 0,
        "lines": [
          {
            "bbox": [175,182,464,229],
            "spans": [
              {
                "bbox": [175,182,464,229],
                "type": "text",
                "content": "H.2 Example: Divide by Zero without Exception Handling"
              }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "index": 4
      }
    ],
    "sub_type": "text"
  }
  

• Example: code block with optional caption:

  {
    "type": "code",
    "bbox": [114,780,885,1231],
    "blocks": [
      {
        "bbox": [114,780,885,1231],
        "lines": [
          {
            "bbox": [114,780,885,1231],
            "spans": [
              {
                "bbox": [114,780,885,1231],
                "type": "text",
                "content": "1 // Fig. H.1: DivideByZeroNoExceptionHandling.java  \n2 // Integer division without exception handling.  \n3 import java.util.Scanner;  \n4  \n5 public class DivideByZeroNoExceptionHandling  \n6 {  \n7 // demonstrates throwing an exception when a divide-by-zero occurs  \n8 public static int quotient( int numerator, int denominator )  \n9 {  \n10 return numerator / denominator; // possible division by zero  \n11 } // end method quotient  \n12  \n13 public static void main(String[] args)  \n14 {  \n15 Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in); // scanner for input  \n16  \n17 System.out.print(\"Please enter an integer numerator: \");  \n18 int numerator = scanner.nextInt();  \n19 System.out.print(\"Please enter an integer denominator: \");  \n20 int denominator = scanner.nextInt();  \n21"
              }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "index": 17,
        "angle": 0,
        "type": "code_body"
      },
      {
        "bbox": [867,160,1280,189],
        "lines": [
          {
            "bbox": [867,160,1280,189],
            "spans": [
              {
                "bbox": [867,160,1280,189],
                "type": "text",
                "content": "Algorithm 1 Modules for MCTSteg"
              }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "index": 19,
        "angle": 0,
        "type": "code_caption"
      }
    ],
    "index": 17,
    "sub_type": "code"
  }
  

Content List (content_list.json)

File naming format: {original_filename}_content_list.json

Based on the pipeline format, with these VLM-specific extensions:

• New code type with sub_type (code | algorithm):
  • Fields: code_body (string), optional code_caption (list of strings)
• New list type with sub_type (text | ref_text):
  • Field: list_items (array of strings)
• image / chart entries may carry an optional sub_type field for visual subtype propagation.
• chart entries may additionally expose content, chart_caption, and chart_footnote alongside img_path; content preserves the original Markdown table text.
• All discarded_blocks entries are also output (e.g., headers, footers, page numbers, margin notes, page footnotes).
• Existing types (image, table, text, equation) remain unchanged.
• bbox still uses the 0–1000 normalized coordinate mapping.
• Starting with 3.0, the VLM backend also emits *_content_list_v2.json; see the common V2 section above for the shared structure.

Examples

Example: code (algorithm) entry

{
  "type": "code",
  "sub_type": "algorithm",
  "code_caption": ["Algorithm 1 Modules for MCTSteg"],
  "code_body": "1: function GETCOORDINATE(d)  \n2:  $x \\gets d / l$ ,  $y \\gets d$  mod  $l$   \n3: return  $(x, y)$   \n4: end function  \n5: function BESTCHILD(v)  \n6:  $C \\gets$  child set of  $v$   \n7:  $v' \\gets \\arg \\max_{c \\in C} \\mathrm{UCTScore}(c)$   \n8:  $v'.n \\gets v'.n + 1$   \n9: return  $v'$   \n10: end function  \n11: function BACK PROPAGATE(v)  \n12: Calculate  $R$  using Equation 11  \n13: while  $v$  is not a root node do  \n14:  $v.r \\gets v.r + R$ ,  $v \\gets v.p$   \n15: end while  \n16: end function  \n17: function RANDOMSEARCH(v)  \n18: while  $v$  is not a leaf node do  \n19: Randomly select an untried action  $a \\in A(v)$   \n20: Create a new node  $v'$   \n21:  $(x, y) \\gets \\mathrm{GETCOORDINATE}(v'.d)$   \n22:  $v'.p \\gets v$ ,  $v'.d \\gets v.d + 1$ ,  $v'.\\Gamma \\gets v.\\Gamma$   \n23:  $v'.\\gamma_{x,y} \\gets a$   \n24: if  $a = -1$  then  \n25:  $v.lc \\gets v'$   \n26: else if  $a = 0$  then  \n27:  $v.mc \\gets v'$   \n28: else  \n29:  $v.rc \\gets v'$   \n30: end if  \n31:  $v \\gets v'$   \n32: end while  \n33: return  $v$   \n34: end function  \n35: function SEARCH(v)  \n36: while  $v$  is fully expanded do  \n37:  $v \\gets$  BESTCHILD(v)  \n38: end while  \n39: if  $v$  is not a leaf node then  \n40:  $v \\gets$  RANDOMSEARCH(v)  \n41: end if  \n42: return  $v$   \n43: end function",
  "bbox": [510,87,881,740],
  "page_idx": 0
}

Example: list (text) entry

{
  "type": "list",
  "sub_type": "text",
  "list_items": [
    "H.1 Introduction",
    "H.2 Example: Divide by Zero without Exception Handling",
    "H.3 Example: Divide by Zero with Exception Handling",
    "H.4 Summary"
  ],
  "bbox": [174,155,818,333],
  "page_idx": 0
}

Example: discarded blocks output

[
  {
    "type": "header",
    "text": "Journal of Hydrology 310 (2005) 253-265",
    "bbox": [363,164,623,177],
    "page_idx": 0
  },
  {
    "type": "page_footnote",
    "text": "* Corresponding author. Address: Forest Science Centre, Department of Sustainability and Environment, P.O. Box 137, Heidelberg, Vic. 3084, Australia. Tel.: +61 3 9450 8719; fax: +61 3 9450 8644.",
    "bbox": [71,815,915,841],
    "page_idx": 0
  }
]

Summary

The above files constitute MinerU's complete output results. Users can choose appropriate files for subsequent processing based on their needs:

• Model outputs (Use raw outputs):

  • model.json

• Debugging and verification (Use visualization files):

  • layout.pdf
  • span.pdf

• Content extraction: (Use simplified files):

  • *.md
  • content_list.json
  • content_list_v2.json

• Secondary development: (Use structured files):

  • middle.json

Source: docs/en/reference/output_files.md